The meeting began with a minute of silence in memory of the victims in South Ossetia.

Answering the President’s questions, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said that a fund of 10 billion roubles will be set up in North Ossetia for reconstruction work in Tskhinvali and the neighbouring villages.

Mr Medvedev instructed Mr Kudrin to put the process of allocating aid money in South Ossetia under his control.

The President called for a carefully planned and balanced approach to extra spending in drafting the 2009 budget, including in connection with the problems created by the humanitarian disaster in South Ossetia.

Mr Medvedev proposed that the meeting analyse the social component of the budget and pointed out the need to analyse how well budget indicators match infrastructure development demands, including the construction of new roads and reconstruction of existing roads.

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